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⭐️🎤 Save the date 🎤 ⭐️ Join us on F

⭐️🎤 Save the date 🎤 ⭐️

Join us on Friday 8 December 2023 at Penang Institute in Penang, Malaysia (or live on Facebook and YouTube), for a book launch and discussion on the life and times of Francis Light with Rose Gan, author of Penang Chronicles. Registration is now open: https://bit.ly/pi-chronicles

Francis Light:
The story of Captain Francis Light and his life partner Martinha Rozells is well known to us all – or is it? While sources on Light are relatively plentiful – if somewhat obscure – little is known for certain about Martinha, who remains an enigmatic figure in the usual accounts. The trilogy of novels entitled ‘Penang Chronicles’ (Dragon, Pear and Emporium) recounts the story of Francis Light and his family anew, bringing a fresh look at this pivotal moment in the history of the Malay Peninsula, with the focus this time firmly on the peoples of the Straits.

Author Rose Gan:
Rose is the author of three books and has spoken about Francis Light, Martinha Rozells and the establishment of the British settlement of Penang to audiences at literary festivals and other book events in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Langkawi, Singapore, Suffolk (UK) and Adelaide (Australia).

Book Launch & Discussion:
In A New Light: Rediscovering the life and times of Francis Light in the Penang Chronicles

Details:
Date: 8 December 2023, Friday
Time: 8.00 pm – 9.30 pm
Venue: Penang Institute, 10 Brown Road, 10350 George Town

Registration is now open: https://bit.ly/pi-chronicles

🎥Live online 8pm 8 Dec✨
YouTube: @penanginstitute
Facebook: PenangInstitute

This event is co-organised by @penanginstitute @definitelybooks, Pansing Distribution, Monsoon Books and Entrepot Publishing.
#historicalfiction #penang #malaysianauthors #malaysianhistory #francislight @rosegan

Posted @withregram • @rosegan Many thanks to Bad

Posted @withregram • @rosegan Many thanks to Badan Warisan Malaysia and the team led by Vanessa Loong for their help and support that made by book launch such a success last Saturday afternoon. Also to my wonderful audience of friends both old and new! Thank you Pansing Malaysia for your pop up shop and all the sales!

Posted @withregram • @rosegan Emporium book tour

Posted @withregram • @rosegan Emporium book tour continues…

Wonderful afternoon with a full house of delightfully interested and eager Penang Chronicles enthusiasts.

Posted @withregram • @riteoncourse When the days

Posted @withregram • @riteoncourse When the days are getting shorter and the nights colder. One of the best things to do is stay home and read under thick blankets😄. My recommended book this time around is The Black and White House by @karienvd . A captivating story that covers cultures - east and west, past and present, and much more. With the festive season approaching, this would make a lovely gift to any reader.

Posted @withregram • @melissadesilva What a grea

Posted @withregram • @melissadesilva What a great day! Shooting in KL today, for day 5 of the Channel News Asia documentary on Eurasians, and just received news that ‘Others’ is Not a Race made it to this week’s Straits Times bestseller list! Thank you everyone who’s bought the book!

#othersisnotarace #eurasians #singlit #singaporebooks #kualalumpur #channelnewsasia #documentaries #culturaljourneys

Congratulations to Melissa De Silva on ‘Others I

Congratulations to Melissa De Silva on ‘Others Is Not A Race’ entering the Straits Times nonfiction bestseller list at #10 🥳🎉 Wonderful to see this republished Singapore Literature Prize-winning book on being Eurasian in Singapore and Malaysia reaching a new audience.

@definitelybooks @melissadesilva @jacarandaliteraryagency @jayapriyavasudevan #singaporeliterature #eurasian #singaporeauthors #singaporeculture #othersisnotarace #singlit #eurasians

⭐️🎤 Save the date 🎤 ⭐️ Join us on F

⭐️🎤 Save the date 🎤 ⭐️

Join us on Friday 8 December 2023 at Penang Institute in Penang, Malaysia, for a book launch and discussion on the life and times of Francis Light with Rose Gan, author of Penang Chronicles. Registration is now open: https://bit.ly/pi-chronicles

Francis Light:
The story of Captain Francis Light and his life partner Martinha Rozells is well known to us all – or is it? While sources on Light are relatively plentiful – if somewhat obscure – little is known for certain about Martinha, who remains an enigmatic figure in the usual accounts. The trilogy of novels entitled ‘Penang Chronicles’ (Dragon, Pear and Emporium) recounts the story of Francis Light and his family anew, bringing a fresh look at this pivotal moment in the history of the Malay Peninsula, with the focus this time firmly on the peoples of the Straits.

Author Rose Gan:
Rose is the author of three books and has spoken about Francis Light, Martinha Rozells and the establishment of the British settlement of Penang to audiences at literary festivals and other book events in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Langkawi, Singapore, Suffolk (UK) and Adelaide (Australia).

Book Launch & Discussion:
In A New Light: Rediscovering the life and times of Francis Light in the Penang Chronicles

Details:
Date: 8 December 2023, Friday
Time: 8.00 pm – 9.30 pm
Venue: Penang Institute, 10 Brown Road, 10350 George Town

Registration is now open: https://bit.ly/pi-chronicles

This event is co-organised by @penanginstitute @definitelybooks, Pansing Distribution, Monsoon Books and Entrepot Publishing.
#historicalfiction #penang #malaysianauthors #malaysianhistory #francislight @rosegan

Congratulations to Olivier Ahmad Castaignède on t

Congratulations to Olivier Ahmad Castaignède on the launch of ‘Radikal’ at Book Bar in Singapore. This is also the first book Monsoon has published with an accompanying Spotify and Apple Music playlist!

‘Radikal’
Jakarta, 2014. Hendra is ‘Radikal’, a techno DJ at the top of his game. In his relentless pursuit of new highs, he likes to lose himself in music and drugs. But when a childhood trauma resurfaces, even his love for Jasmine cannot prevent him from falling into a self-destructive downward spiral. As he grapples with his inner demons and an Indonesia caught between tradition and modernity, Hendra is vulnerable to the extremist ideology that begins to infiltrate his world. No longer able to find solace in techno and ecstasy, he is presented with a new purpose in life and a focus for his pent-up rage: jihad.

@bookbarsg @definitelybooks #fiction #indonesia #jakarta #islam #muslimauthors #techno

Posted @withregram • @melissadesilva Someone a

Posted @withregram • @melissadesilva

Someone asked me recently why ‘Others’ is Not a Race should be republished. It was for what I consider a valid business reason, but still, hearing that question made me feel a little angry. It has always been my firm belief that a book should exist in the world because it needs to, so I would reframe that question as: Why should ‘Others’ is Not a Race exist?

To me, the answer is simple. As long as there are people in Singapore—Singaporeans—who do not know what a Eurasian is, or who have never met a Eurasian before (we do only comprise 0.4 percent of the population after all), this book should exist. To give people an insight into a community and culture they otherwise never would have.

As long as there are people in Singapore who still assume Joseph Schooling is a foreigner to this day because his surname, to them, looks ‘not Singaporean’, this book should exist.

As long as there are people out there who cannot conceive that there are any other cultures in Singapore besides Indians, Malays and Chinese, (like the Singaporean man at the gym I go to who told me to my face he wasn’t ‘convinced’ I was Singaporean, and seemed confused by the fact that I went to primary school in this country), this book should EXIST.

It is my hope that ‘Others’ is Not a Race helps in some small way (or big too, that’s fine by me!) in expanding our understanding of our fellow human beings in Singapore, and deepening our appreciation of the intensely rich cultural landscape we have the benefit of enjoying here. So we may continue to grow to relate to our fellow human beings with ever more empathy, compassion and knowledge. 🔥❤️🌟

For those who aren’t able to attend the launch at Book Bar tomorrow at 3pm, but would like to purchase the book:

‘Others’ is Not a Race is available at Kinokuniya, Book Bar and leading bookstores in Singapore and Malaysia. Paperback and ebook at Amazon, Amazon UK and Kobo.

#othersisnotarace #singaporebooks #singlit #singaporeliteratureprize #eurasians #singaporebookstores #kristang #creolelanguages #eurasianfood

Congratulations to Mark Heyward on the launch of h

Congratulations to Mark Heyward on the launch of his second book, ‘The Glass Islands: a year in Lombok’, at Asmara Restaurant in Lombok, Indonesia.

‘The Glass Islands’
When Australian Mark Heyward decides to build a home and raise a family on the island of Lombok, east of Bali, he has little idea of what is to come. Riots and battles, mythical princesses, magical voyages, birth and death, love and loss – the story takes us into the heart of Indonesia, a country where Mark has lived on and off for twenty years, but never on an island like this.

The call to prayer echoes in the valleys as the sun drops behind the island. The oceans answer to the tug of the moon, the seasons turn, the rains come and go. Some things never change. The love of a man for his wife, for his children; his desire to build, to create, to leave a mark on this good earth; his struggle to survive, his love of life, his fear of death. This is the heart-warming story of one family’s attempt to build a new life in paradise.

#lombok #indonesia #indonesianauthor #bali @asmararestaurantlombok

Posted @withregram • @karienvd Such a lovely e

Posted @withregram • @karienvd

Such a lovely event at @bookbarsg launching my new book #Theblackandwhitehouse @monsoonbooks. Thanks all those that came and Leslie Lim from Pansing for organising!

Indochina, 1936: Charlie Chaplin and his co-star a

Indochina, 1936: Charlie Chaplin and his co-star and lover, Paulette Goddard, are on vacation in Asia following the release of the global superstar’s silent masterpiece, Modern Times. Evading the press in Phnom Penh, he is inspired to work on a new film idea – imagining his iconic alter ego, the Tramp, in the colonial rubber plantations. But Charlie Chaplin’s presence in the French protectorate has encouraged Cambodians to speak out for real against colonial exploitation and the authorities are nervous about his visit. As the middle-aged filmmaker grapples with his creativity and his conscience, a deepening friendship with a Cambodian comic actor and anti-colonial communist eventually forces him to choose between lending his voice to their cause or keeping silent.

Fictionalised around real events, Charlot is a story about how an embittered Charlie Chaplin abandons his silent Tramp in order to find his own voice in the politically turbulent 1930s.

‘A brilliant feat of imagination – reconstructing an episode from Charlie Chaplin’s life and exploring its ramifications in a wholly fascinating and convincing way. An incredibly impressive debut.’ William Boyd, author

‘Charlot is outstanding in its setting. Sparked by an apocryphal news item about Chaplin’s death and rich in its evocation of personalities, place and time, this is a work that truly realises the possibilities of historical fiction … a great read.’ Historical Novel Society (A.K. Kulshreshth)

#charliechaplin #historicalfiction #cambodianliterature #cambodia #cambodiatravel #phnompenh #angkorwat

Join us for a triple book launch Saturday, 4 Novem

Join us for a triple book launch
Saturday, 4 November 2023, 3-6pm at Book Bar in Duxton Road, Singapore. All are welcome.

Olivier Ahmad Castaignede, author of Radikal, Karien van Ditzhuijzen, author of The Black & White House, and Melissa De Silva, author of Others Is Not A Race, will be in conversation with Leslie Lim of Pansing.

Meet the authors, listen to them talk about their books, have them sign a copy of your book and capture the moment with a selfie!

Food and drinks will be available on order from Book Bar.

All are welcome to attend, this is a free public event, and we kindly request you to register first so we have an idea of numbers: http://bit.ly/3Fq6HW5

Congratulations to Rose Gan for delivering two suc

Congratulations to Rose Gan for delivering two successful talks in Adelaide on father and son Francis and William Light, the founders, respectively, of the British settlement of Penang and, 50 years later, the city of Adelaide. The talks attracted more than 70 people, and it was good to see Rose’s trilogy of historical fiction on shelves in local stores (pictured here in Dymocks). Rose needs to fly home to Malaysia soon for several more book events in #penang and #kualalumpur.

Dragon (Penang Chronicles, Vol. I)
Pearl (Penang Chronicles, Vol. II)
Emporium (Penang Chronicles, Vol. III)

@rosegan @dymocksadelaide #historicalfiction #malaysianauthors #malaysianhistory #australianhistory #adelaide

Interested in learning more about the forces and e

Interested in learning more about the forces and events that shaped a young Colonel William Light, the founder of Adelaide?

Rose Gan, author of Penang Chronicles (Vol.1: Dragon, Vol.2: Pearl, Vol.3: Emporium) - a series of historical fiction based on the lives of father and son Francis and William Light - will be holding two talks in Adelaide this week.

Wednesday 25 October 7.30pm Gawler Cultural Heritage Centre. Free event. Book: 8522 9268.

Thursday 26 October 6.30pm Burnside Library. A$5.00. Book: bit.ly/3S5pzS0 (final digit is a zero)

George Town is the capital of Penang, which was founded in 1786 by Captain Francis Light. 50 years later Adelaide was founded by his son, Colonel William Light, so it was only natural that the two should develop a sister city relationship.

The 18th-century Straits of Malacca is in crisis, beleaguered by the Dutch, the Bugis, and the clash between Siam and Burma. Enter Francis Light, devious manipulator of the status quo. From humble origins in Suffolk, England, Light struggles against the social prejudices of his day. As a naval officer and country ship captain he travels from the Americas to India, Sumatra, the Straits and Siam, enduring shipwreck, sea battles, pirate raids and tropical disease. But Light’s most difficult challenge is his ultimate dream: a British establishment in the Indies on behalf of the East India Company.

From Britain to the Peninsular War, from the social pretensions of Bengal to the court of the Pasha of Egypt, from the new city of Adelaide to Java and Singapore in the company of Raffles, Francis and Martinha’s son William Light makes his own way in the world.

Repost: OMG!! I’m a best seller on @amazon.sg t

Repost: OMG!! I’m a best seller on @amazon.sg thank you to everyone for buying a copy! I’m so grateful 🥹 @monsoonbooks @jayapriyavasudevan @amazon.sg

Posted @withregram • @ta.morton